The Prophecy OOC - Epic High Fanatasy Adventure

[Shienvien]

On a non Niin note, those reptilians... can't recall the exact spelling for their name -

Gazzeral, I presume?

[Whelp]

Yes! It's quite obvious now that I've read it, but I couldn't remember it myself for the life of me.

[Dark Jack]

1) It's not really something that can be given a universal answer for. Niin are, like members of any other race, different from individual to individual, and what interests one might not arouse that of another. A Niin could be a follower of a deity, yes, although since their fascination and thus devotion is fickle at best, Niin Favored Ones are quite extraordinarily rare. Since deities generally follow a somewhat constant pattern of behavior Niin usually get bored with them fast, although some of them are capable of being fascinated with a deity for longer if they view it from the right angle. Most commonly Niin wouldn't be able to stay devoted to a deity long enough to become a Favored One unless it is one of the more erratic and unpredictable deities in question, like Rilon, the Grand Master, Bolgar or Himyth (which, you may notice, are all evil deities), but as with everything there are rare exceptions.
The "bond" I mentioned when I wrote about Niin mostly occurs when the Niin has witnessed a person or object being involved in at least several interesting events, at which point they will start to stick around and protect the object of their bond in anticipation of future interesting occurrences involving it. But even such a bond won't hold a Niin's attention forever, and if the object of their bond goes long enough without being involved in anything interesting, the Niin might decide that the fun is over and find something else to do. A Niin might stay with a bonded person even after death, and certain (disturbing) Niin might even find observing the person's decomposition intriguing enough to keep their attention, but more often than not they'd grow bored eventually and wander off. Revenge is not really in Niin nature... they can understand the desire to preserve something one is attached to, but they hardly see any point in destroying whatever removed this thing. If it's gone, it's gone, and they just find something else to care about.

2) Niin... don't care about much of anything aside from their own entertainment, at least not until they're around two hundred years old and their curiosity is dampened a bit. If a person, organization or nation manage to intrigue a Niin somehow they might get it to stick around and even do as it is told, but as always the interest of a Niin is fickle at best. Would they feel loyalty to anyone that were either interesting themselves or promised the prospect of something interesting happening? No. Would they be grateful for the opportunity to experience something interesting? Yes... briefly. They would be eager enough to hear about a prospective adventure, but once they're on that adventure, they really could care less how they got there - as I wrote, Niin tend to be obsessive about things that catch their interest. And once their adventure is over, they're liable to have forgotten why it started in the first place.
Would others use Niin to stir up civil unrest... well, the Crusader's Guild (as one of your examples) definitely wouldn't, partly because of their human-centric ideology, and partly because virtually no Rodorians are even aware that Niin exist. The Catolohne probably wouldn't either, because their culture would deem a victory gained through something like that dishonorable, and others... Well, setting aside the somewhat suicidal behavior that Niin tend towards that would mean that many such deployed Niin would manage to get themselves killed before they did any unwitting damage, Niin are never disruptive on purpose, and it would be a matter of chance whether it caused unrest or not. Due to the unreliable nature of Niin very few would actually consider using them like that, but prefer to send their own more reliable agents instead.

3) Oh, magic can certainly keep most Niin interested - it is an unnatural, chaotic and extravagant force, after all, one that is fascinating to Niin and other races alike. They will likely be sort of all over the place, sampling all kinds of magic they learn about, though... and of course there are rather few Niin mages due to the fact that Niin tend to be a bit reckless, which is often fatal for mages. They usually get themselves killed - by others or their own magic - before they get really good at it.

4) Yes, there have been Niin demonspawn, and yes, such a character would be conceivable.

5) Well, there are no nations that outright brand Gazzeral as monsters to be exterminated wherever they are found, and there are even many members of the other races that feel sorry for them and responsible for their race's part in the fall of the Gazzeral... but there are just as many who still fear and resent the Gazzeral, even after all these centuries, because of the power, knowledge and wealth they once possessed, and there are even those that would kill Gazzeral simply for sport. Consequently Gazzeral never live in or near settlements of other races, but they might generally settle anywhere that is undisturbed by the other races. Gazzeral are rare, though, and non-feral ones even more so after all this time - it's highly unlikely that groups of more than half a dozen civilized Gazzeral still exist even in the most remote regions of the world, and when they are discovered, the formerly mentioned Gazzeral-haters tend to quickly either chase them away or kill them.

[Shienvien]

A random question on my part: I presume Gazzeral never were numerous in the southern parts of relevant areas of Kirirak?

[Dark Jack]

You assume correctly. Although the warmer southern regions might seem like the obvious place for a reptillian race to live, with them being cold-blooded and all, but the fact of the matter is that the southern regions were always too hostile and dangerous for the peaceful Gazzeral, who actually originated from the region that is now Jevog Denûm (which had high volcanic activity even before being reduced to an ash-shrouded wasteland, and was fertile enough to support quite a bit of both flora and fauna). Gazzeral were really almost exclusively found in Rodoria and southern Wegam Fermos before the invasion, and after... well, you know what happened to them.

[Hymusia]

I have a question? Can I NPC Shiny when we get to Zerul (before hand maybe) just for fun DJ?

[Dark Jack]

Uh... um... muh... I guess so? I'd prefer if you didn't, though, to be honest - it'd potentially make a horrible mess once the companions actually get there. I think. Maybe.

...come to think of it, we'll need to think of something to call Jillian's (and possibly Gerald's) group, since Jaelnec, Thaler, Aemoten and Olan's is "the companions". Not in the summary, the name there will likely sort of come on its own once the characters start doing stuff and as they earn more titles in the eyes of the people of Rodoria. But OOC it would be nice with some kind of quick-reference term other than "Jillian and Gerald's group"... and so forth as they get more followers.

[Hymusia]

Haha not a problem, all this talk about races had me thinking about her that's all hehe.

[Syn]

Heh... actual IC time - I want to add "of course", but I don't know if that would be appropriate. And verbalizing his moves in the arcane language does not turn them into spells - to cast an arcane spell one firstly needs to consciously supply the spell with magical energy from one's soul (otherwise the words are mundane and powerless), and secondly one has to pronounce every single syllable of the incantation absolutely flawlessly, or the spell might fail and, in worst case, backfire... which is why most mages prefer to both recite the incantation and trace the arcane sigils in the air as they cast spells, as one done correctly might make up for imperfections in the other. Usually, arcane magic would require so much concentration that the person casting would be rendered incapable of doing pretty much anything else, but armed with the close combat-oriented magical manipulation of the Art, Draven might be able to do it more easily than most others... But even if supplying the energy requires less conscious effort for him than the average arcanist, he still needs to cast the spell correctly, which is extremely difficult to manage in mid-combat.

Alright I think I got it. The post length of the ability would probably be two minutes.

[Shienvien]

But OOC it would be nice with some kind of quick-reference term other than "Jillian and Gerald's group"... and so forth as they get more followers.

Well, right now they are both mages, as opposed to the companions whose group is made up of various people and perhaps more so physical fighters, so right now they can be referred to as such, I'd figure.

Eh, and if we were to make several groups, we'd potentially have to up the player limit, seeing how the entire limit, if each player plays one character, makes for a smaller group than plenty of the formed-for-no-reason ones that I used to move about with back in the day, and which can often enough seen gathering ('were at some room at the same time' is a greater motivation than curing the Withering?).
Five people simply don't function like a group yet... From somewhere between eight and dozen people it starts to change, but it takes more than that before the people start to lose contact with one another, in my experience.


Another thing.. A while back, in the IC, I noted that Aemoten, simply because of his condition of having a never-permanently-dieing-body, but a soul which is much like that of any other mortal's, has actually been informed of Harvester's existence, by Karakon Menepth most likely - as it would be somewhat more probable that he'd become one such himself than the chances are with others (furthermore so if it is true that what a Harvester does is erasing souls from existence, meaning that he would probably want to avoid one worse than the plague in order not to make it so that there would suddenly be two of them...). On top of the additional danger that such pose in relation to Aemoten, Koraakan as a balance-god would altogether be very unfond of Harvesters. Since they aren't very good preservers of balance, but will tilt things . . . in favor of anyone whose enemies just happen to be on the one's path, perhaps.
Also, Aemoten doesn't refer to them as Harvesters, but rather simply as the Soulless, as you might recall.
(And I presume that if I were to elaborate on what is going on and known about Harvesters, telling that which has already been spelled out ICly, but might have skipped Yoshua's attention or been forgotten because the happenings took place so long ago, I'm not exactly giving spoilers...?)
But yeah... Any comments on the last paragraph?